Feldspar

The most common mineral group in Earth's crust, ground into a flux that lowers melting temperatures in glass and ceramics.

Industrial minerals · No. 64

• EU critical 2023
• HHI 1,220 · unconcentrated

Feldspar is the commonest mineral group in Earth's crust, yet Europe calls it critical because its tiles and glass depend on imports.

Chart: Illustration: Feldspar

Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Feldspars are aluminosilicates of potassium, sodium and calcium, found in granites, pegmatites and sands. They are dug from open pits, crushed and cleaned by flotation; output was about 36.4 Mt in 2024.

Three things to know

1. Feldspar is a flux: it lowers the melting temperature of glass batches and ceramic bodies, and ceramics take 53% of US use.
2. Turkey supplied 93% of US feldspar imports in 2021-24 and 41.4% of world export value in 2024.
3. US plants recover mica and silica sand from the same ore, so one pit can sell three minerals.

The journey

1. 1 Rock or sandPegmatite, granite or feldspathic sand
2. 2 Open pitMined and crushed
3. 3 FlotationMica, quartz and iron minerals removed
4. 4 GrindingAbout 20 mesh glass, 200 ceramics
5. 5 End usesGlass batch, tiles, sanitaryware, fillers

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